No Isn't Never
by cojiesmama
Summary: A Danny centered story but very much DL. Completed just in time for the heartbreaking episode Love Run Cold.
1. Chapter 1

A change in atmosphere welcomed Danny Messer as he walked into the breakroom. Champagne glasses everywhere, pizza on the tale, the small enclosure packed with both lab coats and uniforms. And on the wall, a dorky computer print out congratulating the newly promoted CSI Grade 2's: Lindsay Monroe and Sheldon Hawkes.

Danny gave a forced smile as Sid Hammerback handed him a glass of champagne. He is happy for Lindsay and Sheldon, sure. But not overly happy. You see, Danny Messer has been a CSI Grade 3 for over six years now, he was a CSI long before Monroe and Hawkes.

With the promotion of Lindsay and Hawkes, Danny was the only CSI 3rd Grade in the team.

"To Lindsay and Hawkes" Stella Bonasera raised her glass "and more sleepless nights to come".

General laughter around. Danny found Lindsay's eyes in the crowd. She was smiling at him. He felt a painful stab in his chest as he recounted his last conversation with Lindsay here in this very room.

"_I don't get it, Lindsay. I see it, other people see it…. But every time I lay down my cards on the able, you split" he said._

"_We've only known each other for a while. And we work together. And there are things that I can't tell you right now" she said._

"_Enough with the mixed signals, okay? I'm putting it out there. I'm crazy about you. Out of my mind crazy. There." He said._

"_And you expect me to respond right here, right now, without thinking of the consequences?" she had raised her voice, even to her surprise._

"_What exactly are you afraid of?" he asked "Don't you want us to be together?"_

_Lindsay paused._

"_No" she said._

"Hey"

Don Flack's arm on his shoulder brought Danny back to reality.

"Good stuff" Danny raised his glass and finished his drink all in one gulp.

"How you holding up?" Flack asked.

"Don't pity me, now" Danny joked. "Come on, they deserve it".

Flack chuckled. "Oh I'm not talking about the promotion" Flack then glimpses at Lindsay "I'm talking about the promoted".

Danny stares at his empty glass "Better that I know now than later, eh?" he answered.

"I need to tell you something".

Flack takes Danny out of the breakroom and into the hall way. He produced a piece of paper from his jacket.

"I got this off Sgt. Ridgemont from booking." He showed Danny the piece of paper "Sonny Sassone made parole".

Sonny Sassone was a Tanglewood boy, a member of mafia wannabes that Danny grew up with in the Bronx. Unfortunately, Danny's brother Louie was himself a Tanglewood boy. Sonny Sassone was incarcerated for the murder of Bobby Manning and the brutal assault of Danny's brother.

"He's a murder suspect" Danny almost raised his voice "How can that be?"

"I don't know either, man. But he's definitely on my radar." Flack pats Danny's shoulder. "I'll keep you posted."

Just as Flack leaves, Danny sees from the corner of his eye the petite frame of a curly brunette approaching him.

"Glad you came" Lindsay said.

Danny turns to her. "Congratulations". He then turns his back to leave.


	2. Chapter 2

Lindsay Monroe gathers her things as she prepares to call it a day. The lab is never quiet --- it's been as busy as it is at 9pm as it was a while ago at 3 pm and as it will be at 2am the next day.

"Where the hell is Danny?" she heard her boss Mac Taylor walk down the hallway, obviously pissed.

Lindsay takes her purse and looks around. She sees Hawkes walking toward her, frantic.

"Have you seen Danny?" Hawkes asks her.

"No, not since this afternoon at the breakroom" she answers, the cold 'congratulations' still ringing in her ear.

"Mac is flipping out, we've been trying to reach him for an hour" Hawkes takes his cellphone and dials a number.

They both pause "He's not answering his cell" Hawkes replies.

"Hawkes, we gotta run" Stella appears from nowhere, obviously in a hurry "DB by the Brooklyn Bridge".

"I guess I'm going solo" Hawkes answers, following Stella "If you see Danny, let me know, ok?"

Lindsay looks on as Hawkes runs after Stella.

The long walk from the lab to her car parked out front turned from a slow stride to almost a sprint. Where THE HELL is Danny? It was not like him to just disappear.

As Lindsay's car got out of the parking spot, we see that instead of turning left towards her apartment, she turns a sharp right, as she rushes to Danny's apartment.


	3. Chapter 3

"Danny?" Lindsay knocked hurriedly on the door. No answer. The doormat was displaced, about two to three feet from the door. "I'm breaking down the door" Lindsay cries out.

With all the strength from her little body, she pushed on the door. What she saw in that room made her blood run cold.

The couch was overturned. The glass of the center table, shattered. Blood was on the couch and on the carpet. Danny's glasses which she found by the door, were shattered and bloody.

"Danny", Lindsay's voice echoed of panic and fear. She went to his room, nothing. In the kitchen, nothing. She then heard the faint sound of water running in the bathroom.

She rushed to open the doorknob. Locked. She had gone impatient. She takes her glock and shoots the knob. She then kicked the door in.

The tub at the end of the bathroom was overflowing with water. And in it, the shape of a naked man. Danny.

With all her strength, she pulled Danny from the tub. Her heart was racing. Danny felt cold and heavy as she laid him on the bathroom floor --- as cold and heavy as the corpses in Sid's morgue.

She felt for a pulse. None. She listened to his breathing. None. With her clothes and her hair all wet and in disarray, she began performing CPR.

Three, four times Lindsay pounded on his chest and breathed into his mouth. His lips --- the first time hers has every touched his in fact --- were freezing. Lindsay felt her eyes welling up, she can hear her own mind screaming.

Danny just laid there. Stiff.

"Damn it, Danny" she whispered.

After the fifth time, Lindsay stepped back, about to break down in tears. She closed her eyes.

Just then she heard a violent cough. Danny's body started to jerk, water pouring out of his mouth. "Oh God" was all Lindsay could say. She took off her jacket and wrapped Danny with it.

With Danny --- unconscious yet alive --- still in her arms, she fumbled for her cell.

"911. What's your emergency" a woman on the other line said.

"This is Detective Monroe of the NYPD" Lindsay tries not to let her voice break "I need an ambulance. I'm at the third floor of the Ritz Apartments, 5th Avenue. I have an officer down"


	4. Chapter 4

In a matter of minutes, a stampede of EMTs, uniforms and CSIs had reached Danny's apartment --- his boss, Mac Taylor included.

Mac scans the room and had worry on his face. He kneels down and with his gloved hand, picks up Danny's glasses. They were shattered and bloody. He could just imagine how the glasses ended up that way.

Stella Bonasera picks up a note on the floor with a tweezer and shows it to Mac.

"A presto" Stella read the note. "You understand Italian?"

"See you soon" Mac replied

"Letter from his girlfriend?" Stella answered as she stuffed the note into a ziploc bag.

"Or a threatening note" Mac said. "Blood on the couch" Mac noticed.

"And on the carpet too" Stella replied. "Blood on the couch looks older" Stella then proceeds to swab the blood spot on both the couch and the carpet.

Mac then looked at the center table, shattered glass all around it. He saw in his head how Danny must have been thrown around, breaking the table.

The EMTs wheel out the unconscious Danny on the gurney. Lindsay followed them, almost ignoring Mac and Stella.

"You're going with him?" Mac asked Lindsay.

"What?" she turns to them, like she had just woken up.

"It's not an order, it's a question" Mac answers, seeing Lindsay in so much distress, still soaked in bath water.

"I, um" Lindsay finally regains her composure "I'm going to process him. He has cuts on his face, bruises on his chest…."

"Call me when you get there" Mac answers.

As Lindsay walks out of the room, Stella turns to Mac and whispers "Poor girl. Lucky she thought of dropping by. Does she live anywhere near here?"

Mac sighed. "No" he stopped. "Lindsay lives at the other side of town"


	5. Chapter 5

Sheldon Hawkes looks at the plasma screen at the lab, analyzing the threatening note. "A Presto" it had read.

Mac walks in. "You got anything off the note?" Mac asks.

"Swabbed for epithelials. Sent it to DNA" Hawkes replies. He turns to Mac. "Is Danny alright?"

"Lindsay's with him" Mac answers. "Still unconscious."

Hawkes heaves a deep sigh. "I looked at Danny's injuries, Mac. If Lindsay had been late by a minute, Danny would've…"

"But she wasn't" Mac replies. "How about the handwriting, any hits on the database?"

"None so far" Hawkes replies. "But take a look at how the handwriting is slightly slanted to the right. And the marks are heavier on the left, not heavy althroughout"

"Writer was left-handed" Mac concludes. "Can you put up somebody's case file on the screen?"

"Who's?" Hawkes asks.

"Sonny Sassone's. I want to see his signature" Mac answers.

Hawkes punches a few commands on the computer and in a matter of seconds, Sonny Sassone's file is on the screen.

"Look at the "s" on Presto" Mac observes.

"Consistent with the "s" on Sassone" Hawkes answers.

"Get the epithelial DNA results as soon as possible and match it to the blood on the carpet." Mac says as he leaves the room. "It's the only way we can prove that Sonny Sassone wrote that note and tried to kill Danny."


	6. Chapter 6

All Lindsay could do was to stare at him, as he laid there in the hospital bed. Danny's handsome face was severely scarred --- small yet deep cuts near his eye area, a fat lip, a big black bruise on his forehead. It had been five hours since she found him, seconds away from death. The memory still haunted her.

Silently, Mac walks in and sits beside her. He looked at Danny for a while, not knowing what to say to Lindsay.

"Go home and sleep, Lindsay" Mac finally says.

"I'll close my eyes when I can" Lindsay answers.

"Tell me about his injuries" Mac replies.

Lindsay takes a deep breath.

"He broke three ribs. His glasses were shattered in his face with a quick blow. Bruise on his forehead might mean that his head was banged against a wall. Bruises on his wrist and knuckles mean he fought back."

Lindsay stands up, Mac follows her. She gently removes the blanket from Danny to show his shoulder.

"Puncture wound on his shoulder" Lindsay continues. "He was sedated."

"Beat him then sedate him then leave him to drown?" Mac answers. "Why go through all that trouble?"

"I don't know" Lindsay says as she tucks Danny back in, running her fingers through his hair. "But his body was badly beaten as it is. Inject drugs into his system and…."

Her voice started to break. "There he is" she continued.

"How are you holding up" Mac asks.

"On my first day at the tiger pit, Danny played a trick on me." Lindsay smiled as she recalled her first encounter with him "Told me to call you sir".

Mac smiled.

"On that day, I swore that I would get back at him" Lindsay continues. "I swore that he would never be my friend. That he would never be important".

Lindsay turned to Mac. She was crying.

"Yet here you are" Mac answers.

They both paused to look at Danny. He was breathing but he wasn't alive --- not the way they knew him.

"Sometimes you think you have all the time in the world" Mac says "To feel what you want to feel, to say what you want to say. And then someone, something just cuts it short".

Lindsay touched Danny's face.

"So this is how it feels" she says.

"What?" Mac says.

"When someone you love is dying." Lindsay pauses. "You hate him so much for trying to leave, yet you love him so much for struggling to stay".


	7. Chapter 7

Even with two murder raps, battery charges, and now, assault of a police officer, Sonny Sassone still looks unfazed. Unlike any other suspect that Mac has had in his interrogation room, Sonny Sassone had an arrogance that was unparalleled.

Which is why Mac found it satisfying when the evidence was solid --- so solid that it could knock the arrogance off Sonny Sassone's face.

"How you keep slipping from my hands is a mystery to me, Sonny" Mac began.

"You underestimate the Tanglewood boys, Taylor." Sonny said, a smug look on his face.

Mac takes out the threatening note --- 'A Presto' --- now wrapped in a ziploc bag. "You wrote this" Mac said.

"Sure. Means _see you soon_. Me and Messer are friends, you know" Sonny said.

Mac takes out a piece of paper which read "DNA results".

"Your blood on Detective Danny Messer's carpet. Fresh. Explain that to me" Mac said.

"Like I said, Danny Messer and I are friends, Detective Taylor. I'm sure he's mentioned that. "Sonny said. "Fixed me a good steak dinner after I got out, maybe I cut myself with a knife"

Mac looked at his hands. No cuts from a knife. But his knuckles had wounds --- fightbite. And he had a broken nose.

"Your knuckles have open wounds --- fightbite. Your fist hit Danny's face with his mouth open. DNA on your wound matches Danny's." Mac continued.

"He only had one piece of pie" Sonny said, laughing "we had to wrestle for it."

Mac laughed with him, but his was a sarcastic, condescending laugh. He stood from his chair and moved behind Sonny. He put his hands on his shoulders and pressed down --- hard. Sonny started to squirm in pain but didn't say anything.

"You think I'm joking, Sonny?" Mac whispered in his ear. "You got out on parole, went to Danny's house, beat him to a pulp, pumped drugs into him, then left him in his tub to drown. That's another murder on your rap sheet if Danny doesn't make it. And since he's a police officer, the state will make sure that you never see the light again"

"Whoa, whoa hold up" Sonny said. "Pumped drugs? Tub? Drugs and drowning --- not my style, Taylor. I would have beaten him till he's dead if he hadn't swung a bat in my face. He kicked me out. He was alive when I left"

Mac stopped to think. He felt so mad --- mad that Sonny had hurt Danny, but even madder that Sonny's lame excuse might actually pan out.

"If Danny Messer doesn't wake up" Mac said "I will make it my life's work to put you behind bars and make sure you shack up with the meanest thugs in the joint who will flop you around like an inflatable doll"

Sonny laughed again. "I know what this is about. You can tie me to his beating but you can't tie me to the drowning. " Sonny shook his head in amusement. "That must piss you off"

There it was again, Sonny's arrogant look. Perhaps what's solid now isn't always solid.

"Get him out of my sight" Mac said to the police officer behind him, as he turned to leave the room.


	8. Chapter 8

Mac paced to and from his office. It's hard to be him --- Mac Taylor --- and separate his professional and personal feelings towards a case, and separate what the evidence is pointing out and his judgment for a person who is clearly a scum of the universe.

Stella walked in, and in her hand is a case folder. "You're going to mess up your carpet that way, Mac" she said.

Mac sat on his chair. "I hate it when I have good evidence that doesn't seem to be enough"

"Sonny Sassone?" Stella said.

"There's no doubt that he beat up Danny" Mac said "but we don't have evidence to prove that he pumped him with morphine and stuck him in that tub filled with water"

"Maybe he didn't do it" Stella answered.

"Knock knock" Lindsay walked in.

"You're still in the same clothes you were wearing yesterday" Stella said.

"She hasn't gone home" Mac answered. "How's Danny?"

"Still unconscious" Lindsay answered while wringing her fingers. "It's been eighteen hours, Mac."

"What are you saying?" Mac turned back to Stella "It's not Sonny Sassone?"

"Blood on the carpet is Sonny's but the blood on the couch isn't. It's um…. It's female." Stella said.

Stella and Mac turned to Lindsay. "I've only been to Danny's once" Lindsay answered. "I don't remember bleeding."

"It's um…. It's not you. It's someone else." Stella said.

Lindsay looked away.

"Michelle Vernon" Stella answered.

"She's on CODIS?" Mac asked.

"Every medical practitioner is on CODIS. She's a psychiatrist." Stella said. "She lives right across Danny."

"She's a doctor. Has access to morphine and syringes." Mac answered.

"What do you think? An angry ex-girlfriend? She found him in his apartment bloodied and beaten up? Saw an opportunity?" Stella answered.

"I, um…." Lindsay started.

Mac and Stella turned to her, becoming aware of how this information must have hit her.

"I'm going home to take a bath. Change my clothes" Lindsay said as she turned to leave.

"Lindsay, I was just speculating…" Stella said.

"I just, um…." Lindsay answered. "I just want to know who did this to him"


	9. Chapter 9

If Stella's theory was indeed correct, behind the door would be standing a slim, young blonde, perhaps younger than Danny by a few years, moderately huge breasts, a waist smaller than most children.

Instead, when Michelle Vernon opened her apartment door, they saw a woman in her forties, her curly brown hair in disarray. Her waist was indeed small but she did not have the huge breasts. Stella and Hawkes looked at each other. Guess the ex-girlfriend theory is out the window.

"Come in, officers" Michelle said.

"Thank for meeting with us, Dr. Vernon" Stella said.

"Anything to help out Danny" Michelle said. "How is he?"

"He's still unconscious but he's going to be okay" Hawkes answered.

"We found blood in Danny's apartment" Stella said "On his living room couch. And since you're a medical practitioner…."

"I'm in the database" Michelle concluded "I had a paper cut, I might have touched Danny's couch, that's how it got there".

"We also found prints on the door handle to Danny's bathroom where he was found" Hawkes said. "Would you mind giving us a sample of your prints to rule you out as a suspect?"

"I'm sure you'll find my prints in Danny's apartment, not just his bathroom. His fridge, his medicine cabinet, his cupboard. As you will definitely find his prints all over my apartment." Michelle said.

Stella gave Michelle an uncomfortable smile as Hawkes looked at her confused.

Michelle just laughed. "There is nothing going on between us, dear Lord. He's a gorgeous young detective, I'm a hunched back shrink."

"I didn't mean anything by that" Stella said.

"Danny and I, we both moved in to this building about the same time. We've become friends over the years" Michelle reached for her pocket. "You need someone to trust around here. So I gave him my keys and he gave me his."

"Like roommates" Hawkes said.

"Exactly" Michelle answered. "I would go over to his apartment when he's out, and get Cocoa Puffs --- which he always has in stock. He'd go over to my apartment when I'm out to look at my books"

Michelle showed them a whole wall's worth of books. "He shared my passion for understanding the deviant mind."

"Dr. Vernon" Hawkes said. "Do you keep any injectible drugs in your apartment?"

"Yes" Michelle said. "Just some anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, morphine"

Hawkes looked at Stella. "I think I understand now" Hawkes said as he walked towards Danny's apartment.


	10. Chapter 10

Hawkes frantically opened Danny's apartment door.

"Hawkes, what are you talking about?" Stella asked.

"The problem with crime scenes where the victims survive" Hawkes said as he finally opened Danny's door "is that we don't have crime scene photos of the victim."

Hawkes marched into Danny's bedroom. "Lindsay found Danny in his tub, correct? She moved him because she had to resuscitate him"

"Victim's life comes first" Stella answered.

"When Danny was found, he was naked, right?" Hawkes said.

"Just had his boxers on" Stella said. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"If this was a hit, by the Tanglewood boys or whatever, why would they bother to take off his clothes? And where are his clothes? They're not on the bathroom floor."

Hawkes walked to Danny's hamper. "These were the clothes Danny wore the last day we saw him. If this was a hit, why would they bother to throw his clothes in the hamper?"

Stella slowly realized what Hawkes is saying. "Oh God, Danny."

"But we still have a missing syringe filled with morphine" Hawkes said as he walked towards the bathroom.

As Hawkes opened the bathroom door, he saw the one piece of evidence that could further prove his disturbing theory.

The bathroom window was open.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

On the alley outside of Danny's apartment, Hawkes and Stella crouched down as Hawkes picked up a bloody syringe with his gloved hand.

At the end of the syringe is a clear print with dried blood.

"If that print matches Danny's….." Hawkes started.

"You are not to tell a soul" Stella said as she reached for her cellphone.


	11. Chapter 11

On Hawkes' computer screen are three sets of prints.

First print is labeled "Michelle Vernon's medicine cabinet"

Second print, labeled "Danny Messer's bathroom window"

Third print, labeled "Syringe w/ Morphine"

The computer starts processing. All three sets of prints match.

Hawkes types another command. He knows what the outcome would be, but he wants to make sure, perhaps he needed to convince himself. He checks for any matches to the NYPD database.

Match found. Danny Messer.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Although her eyes were closed, Lindsay wasn't sleeping. She sat on her couch, her arms crossed. She's so exhausted. Her body can only take so much. She hasn't slept for almost two days.

The voice of Danny's neurologist still echoes in Lindsay's head.

"If he doesn't wake up in the next twelve hours, we're moving him to the coma ward"

Lindsay opened her eyes suddenly, like she awoke from a nightmare. She noticed a faint beeping sound from her room. It's her cell. She receives the page she has been wanting to receive since the day before.

"Danny's awake" it read.

Lindsay grabbed her purse and ran out of her apartment.


	12. Chapter 12

QUICK AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm finishing my Danny story as an homage to tonight's potentially heartbreaking episode "Love Run Cold".

-0-0-0-0-0-

Danny lied on his side, his back to the door. He stared at a single spot on the hospital wall, his eyes not flinching.

The last time he opened his eyes, he was lying in his tub in a fetal position, as he felt the morphine traveling in his veins, putting him to sleep, and the water in the tub slowly engulfing him, wrapping him like in a cocoon.

Voices in his head were the last thing he heard.

"_I told you I'd get to you, Messer"_

"_To Lindsay and Sheldon and many more sleepless nights"_

"_There's are things I can't tell you right now"_

Now his eyes are open again. He didn't know if he should feel happy or sad that he was still alive.

He hears a knock on the door. He turns around.

"Hey"

Mac Taylor walks in. Danny sits up from his bed.

"I guess you know by now" Danny said, his voice hoarse.

"What the hell were you thinking, Danny?" Mac asked.

Danny avoided Mac's eyes. Mac just looked at him, both concern and anger in his face.

"Is it the promotion?" Mac asked, his tone serious. "Getting Lindsay and Hawkes promoted over you? It's just a title and an extra twenty-four hundred dollars a year, Danny. It's not my respect"

Danny started to tear up.

"Is it Sonny Sassone making parole? Beating you up the first chance he got?" Mac said

"I have him on my radar. If the law allowed me to stand on his doorstep with a gun in my hand, waiting for him to make the slightest mistake, I will do it. I will catch him, Danny."

Danny turned to his boss. "Mac…"

"Is it Lindsay?" Mac said. The veins on Danny's forehead looked like it was about to burst.

"That woman got off a 16-hour shift to rush to your apartment to know how you are, she broke down your door, pulled you out of that tub, gave you back your breath." Mac said.

Danny looked at him, surprised. "What?" Danny said.

"She hardly left your side, waiting for your eyes to open." Mac continued "She hasn't slept in over two days, worried sick about you. And that's just everything she's done for you in the past 48 hours" Mac said.

Danny looked confused. "Just because she said 'no' now doesn't mean it's no forever" Mac said. "No isn't never".

"You don't know what it's like" Danny said "having all of that pile up".

"Because you never told me" Mac said. "That's what angers me the most, Danny. I thought you trusted me. Why couldn't' you come to me?"

Danny shook his head. Tears were now falling down on his sheets.

"You know what happens now?" Mac continued. "IAB is going to be all over you --- psych eval, meetings with shrinks, the works. They will be in your house, in your school records, in your bank records, in your life. You have no idea the strings I had to pull so you wouldn't lose your job."

Mac starts to head for the door. "You are on mandatory leave of absence for two weeks."

Danny looked up, hurt by what Mac had said.

Mac turned back to Danny. "A plane crashed into a building and suddenly I was alone"

Danny looked at him, nodded his head.

"You're not the only one with a load on his shoulder, Danny" Mac continued. "I've been carrying mine for five years"


	13. Chapter 13

Out on the hospital halls, the nurses are chatting among themselves. One of the doctors passes by and he seemed to have made a joke. The nurses laugh.

The janitor comes into view, mopping the floors. He is humming a tune. He looks very old and weak, but he seems like he didn't have a care in the world.

As Danny cradled his backpack on his lap, he looked at all the strangers around him, going about their lives. Three days ago, he felt like he wasn't among them anymore --- in his hospital gown, hooked up in tubes. Now he's back in his casual shirt and jeans. But still, he couldn't feel what they were feeling. Happiness and laughter seemed alien to him.

Danny was staring at the halls so intently that he didn't notice Lindsay come in the room. He didn't say a word to her. Lindsay just sat there beside him.

In took about five to ten minutes of silence before either of them talked. Lindsay was the first to find her voice.

"How are you feeling?" Lindsay asked.

Danny found her question amusing. "Like an idiot" he answered. He stood up and slung his backpack on his shoulder as he prepared to leave.

"I will only ask one thing of you" Lindsay said. Danny looked up, he crossed his arms.

"Now is not the time, Lindsay" Danny answered.

"You can do whatever you want with your life" Lindsay said, her eyes starting to fill with tears "You can hate me forever. You can walk out that door and never talk to me. You can take any random woman and parade her under my nose. You will not hear a thing from me, Danny. Not a thing."

Danny looked at her. The sight of Lindsay crying was almost unbearable.

"But I beg you" Lindsay continued "don't hurt yourself again. I can't live with it"

"The guilt? I didn't do it because of you" Danny said.

Lindsay stood up "You were practically dead when I found you. And I wanted to die myself. I can live with the guilt. It's you I can't live without".

Danny shook his head. "I don't understand. We're right back where we started. You say one thing now, then you say another thing the next. It's like I'm talking to two Lindsays"

Danny turned to leave. Lindsay stopped him.

"Which Lindsay do you choose to believe?" Lindsay said.

Danny's voice fell into a whisper "The Lindsay who will tell me that she feels the same way about me as I feel about her".

Lindsay looked into his eyes. "If there's a Lindsay you should believe" she said "it's the Lindsay who rushed to your door to save your life".

Danny sighed. "What do you want from me?" he asked.

"I just…. I need to…." Lindsay stammered.

"Fix some things. Things I don't know about. That old story" Danny said.

"I'm only asking that you trust my word." Lindsay said.

"And I'm asking you to trust me" Danny said. "that whatever it is, I'm not going to care. But I guess that's too much to ask".

Danny turned his back on her and walked out the door. He walked as fast as he could, so that she wouldn't see his eyes welling up.

Lindsay just stood in the hall, looking as he walked away.

Danny may be alive but his heart had turned cold.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews. "No Isn't Never" went through a really great journey with you guys and hope you had as much fun reading it as I had fun writing it.

I don't mean to defend myself, but I got some reviews that read that they were hoping that Danny didn't commit suicide. Honestly, I don't want him to do that too (I'd be the first to cry). But Danny is my favorite character on CSI:NY precisely because he has this dark, emotional, vulnerable side to him, and he's bound to be self-destructive at some point. And I'd also like to think that he's a hopeless romantic and that his feelings for Lindsay is way beyond the level of infatuation.

Also (and this, I hope they would do in the show) I would like to put Lindsay in a situation where she would potentially lose Danny so she would realize what she feels about him, because up to now, her feelings for Danny is not as crystal clear as what Danny feels for her.

Love Run Cold tonight! I hope it won't be as heartbreaking as I imagine it would be….


End file.
